{"id":38584,"date":"2016-05-23T07:33:57","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T11:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=38584"},"modified":"2016-05-23T07:38:52","modified_gmt":"2016-05-23T11:38:52","slug":"facebooktwittergoogleemailcopy-news-how-corporate-america-bought-hillary-clinton-for-21m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=38584","title":{"rendered":"How corporate America bought Hillary Clinton for $21M"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Walsh
\n<\/a>The New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cFollow the money.\u201d That telling phrase, which has come to summarize the Watergate scandal, has been a part of the lexicon since 1976. It\u2019s shorthand for political corruption: At what point do \u201ccontributions\u201d become bribes, \u201cconstituent services\u201d turn into quid pro quos and \u201ccharities\u201d become slush funds?<\/p>\n

Ronald Reagan was severely criticized in 1989 when, after he left office, he was paid $2 million for a couple of speeches in Japan. \u201cThe founding fathers would have been stunned that an occupant of the highest office in this land turned it into bucks,\u201d sniffed a Columbia professor.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nBill and Hillary Clinton collected more than
\n$48 million in speaking fees in the past few
\nyears.\u00a0Photo: Getty Images<\/span><\/h5>\n

So what would Washington and Jefferson make of Hillary Rodham Clinton? Mandatory financial disclosures released this month show that, in just the two years from April 2013 to March 2015, the former first lady, senator and secretary of state collected $21,667,000 in \u201cspeaking fees,\u201d not to mention the cool $5 mil she corralled as an advance for her 2014 flop book, \u201cHard Choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throw in the additional $26,630,000 her ex-president husband hoovered up in personal-appearance \u201chonoraria,\u201d and the nation can breathe a collective sigh of relief that the former first couple \u2014 who, according to Hillary, were \u201cdead broke\u201d when they left the White House in 2001 with some of the furniture in tow \u2014 can finally make ends meet.<\/p>\n

No wonder Donald Trump calls her \u201ccrooked Hillary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Modal Trigger<\/a>\"\"
Hillary Clinton was paid huge sums of money to speak with everyone from Goldman Sachs to eBay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A look at Mrs. Clinton\u2019s speaking venues and the whopping sums she\u2019s received since she left State gives us an indication who\u2019s desperate for a place at the trough \u2014 and whom another Clinton administration might favor.<\/p>\n

First off, there\u2019s Wall Street and the financial-services industry. Democratic champions of the Little Guy are always in bed with the Street \u2014 they don\u2019t call Barack Obama \u201cPresident Goldman Sachs\u201d for nothing, but Mrs. Clinton has room for Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice and their 10 best friends. Multiple trips to Goldman Sachs. Morgan Stanley. Deutsche Bank. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. UBS Wealth Management.<\/p>\n

As the character of Che Guevara sings in \u201cEvita\u201d: \u201cAnd the money kept rolling in.\u201d And all at the bargain price of $225,000 a pop . . . to say what? We don\u2019t know, because Hillary won\u2019t release the transcripts.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nOne has to wonder what corporations are
\ngetting for their money when Hillary
\nClinton shows up to speak.\u00a0Photo: AP<\/span><\/h5>\n

Big Pharma and health-care companies also make the list; they want to keep on the good side of the woman who tried to force HillaryCare down our throats in 1993 and who\u2019s sure to morph ObamaCare into the \u201csingle-payer\u201d socialized-medicine model so beloved of \u201cprogressives.\u201d So say hello to the National Association of Chain Drug Stores ($225,000) and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society ($225,500).<\/p>\n

The entertainment industry has an enormous effect on the popular culture, so no surprise seeing the A&E Networks on the list. American Jews donate lustily to the Democratic Party, so throw in the Beth El Synagogue in Minneapolis and the Jewish United Fund of Chicago.<\/p>\n

The United Fresh Produce Association. The National Automobile Dealers Association ponied up $325,000. Even eBay forked over protection money, er, an honorarium. Because taking care of constituents is what the Clintons do \u2014 as long as the constituents take care of them.<\/p>\n

As \u201cClinton Cash,\u201d a new documentary based on Peter Schweizer\u2019s 2015 book, shows in excruciating, irrefutable detail, it\u2019s always \u201cpay to play\u201d with the Clintons<\/a>, whether personally or via their family racket, the Clinton Foundation (which includes the Clinton Global Initiative). They\u2019ve sucked up vast sums of \u201ccontributions\u201d from some of the most unsavory folks on the planet, including Nigerian dictators and Kazakhstani despots.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

But it\u2019s their parlaying of \u201cpublic service\u201d by two career \u201ccivil servants\u201d into personal enrichment that\u2019s shameless.<\/p>\n

Bill Clinton\u2019s speaking fees skyrocketed just days after Hillary\u2019s nomination as secretary of state in 2009. Corporations, such as TD Bank, that had never paid a dime to hear him speak suddenly bellied up to the bar, waving fistfuls of cash. Coincidentally, TD Bank was the largest investor in the Keystone XL pipeline, which needed approval from the new secretary of state. Hillary dodged and weaved and Obama later nixed it, \u2014 but the Clintons kept the cash. It makes sense to make friends with the woman who might just be the next president. But what does that say about what the office has become?<\/p>\n

As Obama has shown, there\u2019s now essentially no limit on the president\u2019s power: He can dictate overtime wages (via executive decree), the forcible integration of the suburbs (via HUD) and even sexually integrate bathrooms (under Title IX). No wonder private companies want to cozy up to the White House. Your business is now the president\u2019s business, if he or she wants it to be.<\/p>\n

But, should Hillary attain the White House, you ain\u2019t seen nothing yet. For the Clintons, who once rented out the Lincoln Bedroom, too much doesn\u2019t even approach being enough.<\/p>\n

\n

Here\u2019s how much Hillary Clinton was paid for her 2013-2015 speeches:<\/h3>\n